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Obama Vs. Concussions: Why The White House Made Head Injuries A Presidential Issue

There are many reasons why President Obama might have decided to host the first-ever White House summit on concussions. He’s a sports fan. He’s a parent.

And he’s a lifelong athlete who likely had a couple concussions of his own, Obama acknowledged on Thursday. (An admission that I don’t believe he’s made before.)

“When I was young and played football briefly, there were a couple of times where I’m sure that that ringing sensation in my head and the need to sit down for a while might have been a mild concussion,” the president said at Thursday’s White House Healthy Kids & Safe Sports Concussion Summit.

“At the time you didn’t think anything of it. [And] the awareness is improved today, but not by much.”

The presidential summit brings together sports officials, researchers, parents, and athletes. And the day is packed with a mix of activities. In the morning, Obama gave his most extensive remarks yet on concussions; in the afternoon, the president will participate in drills with local youth athletes. FOX Sports reporter Pam Oliver—who suffered her own high-profile concussion—will moderate a panel with General Ray Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff. Academics will be on hand to discuss their latest findings.

As Sean Gregory writes at TIME, it’s unclear exactly how much the summit will actually accomplish—although it’s already served to boost awareness and gin up more research dollars.

The president announced a $30 million joint study between the NCAA and the Pentagon that purports to be “the most comprehensive clinical study of concussion and head impact exposure ever conducted.” The NFL and NIH have announced significant new research efforts, too.

Obama’s journey from sports fan to First Fan

The president has hosted all-day sessions to spotlight key issues before; Obama’s convened White House summits on health reform and fiscal issues, using them to advance his policy agenda. Still, it’s somewhat surprising to see concussions get the presidential spotlight, since there’s still so much we don’t know about how to treat head injuries—and whether they’re even preventable when playing certain sports.

According to Jay Carney, the president’s spokesperson, the idea of an all-day summit about concussions grew out of conversations that he and Obama would have on Air Force One, as parents and sports fans. The summit is the “perfect opportunity” to address growing concerns about safety in sports, Carney suggested.

“We talk a lot about the president using the pen, using the phone, in terms of trying to accomplish action this year,” White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri added—specifically, the idea that the president can create change simply by convening leaders and promoting reforms.

And beyond the power of the pen, the president has long believed in the power of sports in American culture. “One of the big unifiers in this country is sports, and football in particular,” Obama told ESPN’s Chris Berman in 2012.

The president would know: Football had a totemic role in his young life.

As Obama writes in his autobiography, “Dreams from My Father,” playing football was symbolic of his efforts to fit in, after his family moved from Indonesia back to Hawaii. “I had no idea how to throw a football in a spiral or balance on a skateboard,” Obama writes. “A ten-year-old’s nightmare.”

(Later, the president suggests that he began to be more accepted by his classmates. One reason: he learned how “to toss a wobbly football around.”)

The president hasn’t been shy about offering opinions on football—but his priority has been tweaking the game, not taking on a central pillar of the sport. Here’s an excerpt from an interview that ran during “Monday Night Football” in 2008, on the eve of the presidential election.

Berman: Senator, let’s bring it into our arena for a moment. If you could change one thing in sports, what would that be?

Obama: I think it is about time that we had playoffs in college football. You know, I am fed up with these computer rankings, and this and that and the other. Get eight teams. The top eight teams right at the end. You’ve got a playoff. Decide on a national champion.

(It’s unclear if Obama’s comments played a role, but the NCAA did move to adopt a playoff system that will begin this year. “Promises made, promises kept,” the president joked in a second interview with Berman four years later. “This is the kind of change you can believe in.”)

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